Cape Breton food hub looking to grow business

SYDNEY, N.S. - The Pan Cape Breton Food Hub is hoping for a $7,500 commitment from the Cape Breton Regional Municipality as it continues to try to reach more potential local food producers and consumers.

Alicia Lake, the food hub co-ordinator, and chair Jim Mustard appeared at this week’s CBRM council general committee meeting updating councillors on the work of the food hub and discussing the potential for expansion.

The hub started as a two-year pilot project in 2015 with an online grocery store model, connecting consumers with Cape Breton-grown food.

“The producers are able to list the products that they have for sale on our website and then consumers … log in and order the products that they want,” Lake said.

Food producers say the hub has resulted in increased revenues for their operations, she added.

During the pilot, more than $120,000 in increased sales of local food was reported. Last year, producers in CBRM received more than $21,000 from the hub’s sales.

The hub’s funding request will go through the CBRM’s sustainability grant program for consideration.

Organizers expect the interest base for potential memberships to continue to expand. When the food hub began it had 50 consumers, adding 75 more in 2016. Projections have indicated that as many as 200 consumers could purchase food from about 30 Cape Breton producers in 2017.

“It’s a lot of small businesses and medium-sized businesses, as well,” Lake said.

Once ordered, producers then leave their goods at one of seven Cape Breton locations, where they are delivered to a distribution centre, sorted by volunteers and made ready for customers who pick up items at a handful of locations. Goods are also delivered directly to restaurants.

Mustard said they hope to increase the number of producers involved with the hub. He noted that there’s tremendous potential for growth within the CBRM, where there is more than 78,000 acres of agricultural land but only about 1,100 acres of it is in production.

“I need more people on the land,” he said.

Regarding the CBRM soils, Mustard said almost 60,000 acres of the municipality’s agricultural land is “really good soils.”

Mustard and Lake have already appeared before other councils across Cape Breton with a similar financial request.